The Franklinton Demons football team will be playing in the Division II Non Select state championship game this Friday at 7 pm in the Superdome.
This was made possible by the Demons defeating the Iowa Yellowjackets last Friday in Demon Stadium, 35-29. The Demons move their record to 12-1 on the season, their best since 2014. The Demons return to the championship game for the first time since 2010 and will be playing the 18 seeded Cecilia Bulldogs. The Demons have played Cecilia twice over the years and have a 1-1 record against them. They played in 1981 and defeated them but fell to them in 2022, both times in the playoffs.
Against Iowa, the Demons got on the board first with 4:57 on the clock in the first when Sy Austin went in from five yards out. The defense was offsides on the extra point so the Demons elected to go for two and were successful as Austin went in again for the 8-0 score. Iowa responded with a score as they passed for a 57 yard touchdown for an 8-7 score.
The Demons responded with a 65 yard drive that Ausitn capped off with a one yard run at the 10:27 mark of the second and a 15-7 score. The Yellowjackets were forced to punt and the Demons scored again, this time on a 60 yard pass from Jacob Crain to Conner Magee that moved the score to 22-7 with 8:11 left in the first half.
DJ Anders intercepted an Iowa pass on their next drive to give the Demons the ball at the Iowa 25. The Iowa defense came up big and the Demons turned the ball over on downs. Iowa then put together a long sustained drive that moved them to the Demons 15. The Demons defense held them on downs but a penalty gave them an untimed down. The Demons again defensed it well but yet another penalty gave them another untimed down. Again, the Demons defense played it well and the Yellowjackets were denied and the score of 22-7 stood at halftime.
Iowa came out fired up in the third period and scored twice to tie the game as they scored on a 7 yard run and a 66 yard pass as they used one play to score and the game was tied at 22-22 with 5:52 in the third.
The Demons scored with 10:01 on the clock in the fourth to take a 29-22 lead when DaMikies McClain caught an 11 yard pass from Crain. Iowa again responded as they scored on a 10 yard pass with 3:22 left in the game for a 29-29 score.
The Demons moved down the field and scored on a nice 31 yard pass from Crain to Dalton Freeman with only 1:18 left in the game. The extra point was moved back after a penalty and was ruled no good, giving the Demons a 35-29 lead.
Gabe Ezell put the kickoff into the end zone and the Yellowjackets moved to midfield before running out of downs and time there.
FHS Coach Nick Saltaformaggio, who is taking his third team to the championship game, said his team played great.
"It played out like our year played out. We just battled and battled and battled and at the end of the day, we just found a way to win. We found a way differently, we played good defense tonight, Jacob (Crain) was phenomenal and our kids were resilient and played phenomenally well."
Jacob Crain was the leader offensively with 365 yards and 3 touchdowns passing with one interception. He also rushed for 10 yards on 4 carries. He had 15 completions on 24 attempts.
DaMikies McClain was the leading receiver with four catches for 121 yards and a touchdown.
Conner Magee had three receptions for 74 yards and a touchdown. Dalton Freeman had two receptions for 44 yards and a touchdown. Sy Austin had two receptions for 37 yards.
Jayden Burkhalter had one reception for 13 yards and Christian Young had one for 4 yards.
Sy Austin rushed for 84 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries.
Gabe Ezell was 3 of 4 on extra point kicks.
•For championship game ticket information, see Damon Smith’s column on Page A6.
